Tanzania: Don’t Panic, Insists Ngoma

Dar es Salaam - Young Africans forward Donald Ngoma has urged his teammates and fans not to panic following a wobbly start to the group stage of the Caf Confederation Cup.

Yanga, as they are well known, are in group A of the second tier African club championship. They sit bottom of the group after losing their first two matches.

The Hans van der Pluijm-coached team slumped to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Mouloudia Bejai of Algeria on June 19 before losing by the same score-line to DR Congo's TP Mazembe on June 28.

Despite languishing at the bottom of the four-team table without a point, Yanga have four matches to make amends for their wasted opportunities.

They need at least three wins and a draw from their remaining matches to ensure progression to the more lucrative stage--the last four.

On Saturday, Yanga will host Medeama FC from Ghana at the 60,000-seater National Stadium.

And the Zimbabwean striker, who has yet to find the back of the net in the group stage, believes that Yanga have the quality to bounce back and march on to the semi-finals.

"I think we still have a chance," he told The Citizen, adding, "We are going to play Medeama on Saturday on our home turf and we will certainly pull out all the stops,"

"We have lost our two first group matches, but I think we bottled it against TP Mazembe. However, after the game we spoke as players and we agreed that we have to roll up our sleeves in the remaining encounters.

"I strongly believe that we are not out of the competition, we have a strong team and fans should trust us. We are going to make them proud by qualifying to the next stage of the Caf Confederation Cup."

Ngoma, however, admitted that Yanga face a tall order to advance following a poor start to the group A.

"Let me make it clear about this; it is not going to be an easy task shoving off the likes of TP Mazembe and Mouloudia Bejai. We have to work really hard to deny them a chance to progress and as players, we are ready to sacrifice everything for the club. We will certainly give our 100 per cent come Saturday," he added.

Yanga stalwart defender and captain Nadir Haroub echoed Ngoma's remarks saying they will go all out against the Ghanaian outfit, exuding hopes of pulling off a comprehensive victory.

"We are not happy with our position in the group, so we will do everything possible to get our first three points on Saturday," said the no-nonsense central defender.

Meanwhile, the Yanga-Medeama match will be handled by match officials from Egypt.

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